Cleaning shouldn't be hard. Since 95% of it is on the hot side of the brewing process and is boiled anyway, you don't need to get things 100% spotless either.

I brew indoors in a basement brewery so I don't want to carry the kettles outdoors (not to mention it's winter here 6-8 months of the year). So I have large commercial sink I use that is right beside the boil kettle. The boil kettle is tilted 90 degrees towards the sink and I use a powerful pre-wash arm to wash it out while wiping with a sponge. No need to disconnect the heating element or temp probe wire.

While I'm boiling the mash tun gets cleaned the same way but on the other side of the sink (there's a table). I disconnect the one temp probe wire.

The Hot Liquor tank doesn't need cleaning. It only ever has water in it.

I keep things pretty simple and only use oxiclean once and a while. I don't sanitise the equipment on the hot side of the brewing process as mentioned. Everything is boiled. Only the CFC chiller requires some good cleaning but hot water and oxi is pretty much all I use.

When the brew day is done, everything is cleaned. A soft sponge with hot water and elbow grease is all we use to clean the Mash/Lauter Tun and Boil Kettle. The Hot Liquor Tank does not need cleaning as it only ever has water in it. To wash out the hoses, pumps, and chiller we simply run hot water through them. When a thorough cleaning is required (every 10 or so batches), we use an oxygen based cleaner. It's a great (readily available) cleaner for stainless steel and the other materials used in our brewery. We heat up a scoop or two in the Boil Kettle and circulate it in all the hoses, pumps, and chiller to remove any build-up. A compact shop vac is used to evacuate standing water from the various parts after cleaning.

If brewing indoors with a hood fan, we recommend that you continue running the fan at low speed for a few hours after the brew day is done to help dry out the fan and ducts completely.

Yeah we are still getting a feel for the system, but have a sort of "plan" for the next brew day:

1. Suck out spent grains from mash tun with wet vac, or scoop out with bowl
2. Drain clean cool water into MLT when chilling, rinsing sides and bottom
3. Pump clean water back into empty boil kettle to clean BK, hoses and pumps
4. Pump water from BK through chiller to clean the chiller as well
5. Suck out remaining water in all kettles with wet vac and soft sponge

It should help just to have a process down, but I'm sure we'll learn more with each batch. Do you use the shop vac to suck out grains or hop sludge? Some people on here say it works well, others say it's a mess inside the shop vac.

Do you use the shop vac to suck out grains or hop sludge? Some people on here say it works well, others say it's a mess inside the shop vac.

Nope. I scoop grain with a bowl. Kettle gets turned 90 degrees and dumped into the sink. Most of the hop gunk I put in my spent grain bucket and it gets put in city food composting bin (our city recycles organic matter).

It's pretty much CPI (clean in place) because everything centers around my sink with tables on both sides.

Using a shop vac sounds like it would take long and then be really messy. You'd have to completely clean the shop vac after. No thanks.

@Kal, 208V is pretty common in older city centers in the states. I'm in central Ohio, and although I have 240 at my house, 4 blocks away all the downtown buildings only have access to 208. Sometimes the infrastructure just plays out like that. AEP (our local power company) has been claiming they will drop in 240 for 6 years that I know of, with no action yet.

@HappyLoon, nice system! Looking good. After I built mine, I initially found cleaning to be hard as well. I finally stopped screwing around with the pumps to try to clean things and instead just use my arms and the sink. It goes pretty quick if you roll up your sleeves! I also scoop my spent grains into buckets and compost them.

Does anyone use the blichmann false bottom in their boil kettle to screen whole hops?

The problem with doing something like that is that you're not just filtering out hops. You also have hot break to contend with, and if you chill in the boil kettle, cold break as well. Both will likely clog up the false bottom excessively causing flow to stop.